As I Lay Dying

In the stifling heat of a Mississippi summer, a woman lies on her deathbed. From her airless room, she can hear her son sawing planks to make her coffin. Two other sons have left to fetch timber; they know that they could miss the moment of their mother’s passing but they cannot resist the chance to earn three dollars. Addie Bundren’s one request is to be buried in Jefferson, 40 miles away. Her family’s terrible journey there will be plagued with disasters of almost biblical proportions, including a flooded river that threatens to sweep away the coffin entirely.

Production Details

Introduced by William Gay

Illustrated by Katherine Hardy

Three-quarter-bound in cloth with a Modigliani paper side

Printed with a design by Katherine Hardy

Set in Deepdene

Frontispiece and 7 colour illustrations

208 pages

Book size: 9" × 5¾"

As I Lay Dying

‘That’s what they mean by the love that passeth understanding:
that pride, that furious desire to hide that abject nakedness which
we bring here with us, carry with us into operating rooms,
carry stubbornly and furiously with us into the earth again.’

‘The most radical innovator in the annals of American fiction’J.M. COETZEE

First published in 1930, As I Lay Dying is an unforgettable portrait of a poverty-stricken American family. The narrative is shared by 15 members of the Bundren clan, their neighbours and acquaintances: Jewel, Addie’s favourite son, whose real father is the preacher Whitfield; Addie’s work-shy husband Anse, who fears that if he ever sweats he will die; their daughter Dewey Dell, who has pinned her hopes on the trip to Jefferson in order to terminate a pregnancy. As each of the narrators speaks, an utterly compelling picture of their relationships, secrets, rivalries and frustrations emerges. Faulkner’s style at times resembles the stream-of-consciousness of Joyce and Woolf, informed by the rhythms of Southern speech and its unanswerable truths: ‘And then, life wasn’t made to be easy on folks: they wouldn’t ever have any reason to be good and die.’

William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in 1897. With the publication of The Sound and the Fury in 1929 he became a dominant force in American literature, the most prominent of the group of 20th-century Southern writers that includes Flannery O’Connor, Truman Capote and Eudora Welty. Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. This edition contains a new introduction by William Gay, a leading light amongst the contemporary writers of the American South.

Reviews

"As I Lay Dying is one of my all time favourites. This edition is so lovely that at times I find myself picking it up just to hold it in my hands. The illustrations are gorgeous and their style complem..." [read more]

"As I Lay Dying is one of my all time favourites. This edition is so lovely that at times I find myself picking it up just to hold it in my hands. The illustrations are gorgeous and their style complements the text wonderfully.
One thing I will note, however, is that the copy I have received does not match the details given above (it looks as if Folio changed the edition for 2014 and has not updated the product details). My edition is missing the introduction and frontispiece (which must be the illustration of Addie in bed, an illustration that does not feature in my copy at all), and as such is only 194 pages, unlike the 208 given above. The novel launches immediately, without any sort of title page - the first page after the brown Modigliani paper is Darl's first chapter.
This is not so much of a problem for me, indeed, I didn't even think of it until I revisited the Folio site and noticed that my edition differed. However it is important to note that this edition is a little different to what is described (which is why I had to give it a four star rating).
A lovely copy from Folio that I am very happy to have on my shelf." [hide full review]

Review by Arturo on 24th Jul 2013

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5/5

Review by ericbruen on 21st Jul 2013

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5/5

"I fell head over heels in love with this book when I first read it - I fell more in love when I set eyes on this folio edition. This edition of As I Lay Dying is the third I've bought and despite alre..." [read more]

"I fell head over heels in love with this book when I first read it - I fell more in love when I set eyes on this folio edition. This edition of As I Lay Dying is the third I've bought and despite already having a paperback copy at home(I gave away the other), I just needed this. I love the binding, Hardy's fish is so beautiful, as are her illustrations inside.
For me, this is Faulkner's most accessible and touching story and the binding and illustrations are outstanding.
" [hide full review]